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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29601792">Floating Flames</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AAMain/pseuds/AAMain'>AAMain</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, F/M, Merman!Ben, Merpeople, Sirens, Size Difference, The author can't do romance, This is the kind of story which you wanna murder the author after you read it, Wet Dream, Why Did I Write This?, human!rey, i seriously have no idea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:27:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,403</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29601792</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AAMain/pseuds/AAMain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Legend said there were sirens in these waters. They would sing enchanting lyrics in the middle of the night, luring innocent sailors. So that they could kill the victims, drink their blood then shed themselves out of mermaid form and into the human bodies. So that they could live on lands.</p><p> <br/>Rey always found such legends laughable. Why would those sirens want to live on lands anyway? It was cold here. So cold that everything froze with her own heart.</p><p> <br/>Until she saw one with her own eyes.</p><p> </p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rey &amp; Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story was first posted last May under a different name <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24320803/chapters/58633669"> Missed</a>. I recently recomposed the whole thing, changed a few settings and posted it again under a new name. Don’t worry, the story is already completed. I will update the following chapters soon after proofreading and editing</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>It was some usual day in September. Leaden clouds hanging low in the west promised heavy snow.</p><p> </p><p>“You girls should better stay in today.” Tico couples suggested before they left for the ironshop.</p><p> </p><p>“I bet I still have a couple of hours.” Rey took a look at the sky, “Wanna come with me and find some luck?”</p><p> </p><p>“Alright. But we must start to head back as soon as the snow began to fall.” Rose warned.</p><p> </p><p>The road froze a bit even in day time. Two girls struggled towards the woods.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>There was one thing you should know about this island.</p><p> </p><p>Two blizzards a year, each lasted six months.</p><p> </p><p>Another thing you should know was that, no matter how long and bitter the blizzard is, the waters never froze.</p><p> </p><p>Legend said there were sirens in these waters. They would sing enchanting lyrics in the middle of the night, luring innocent sailors.So that they could kill the victims, drink their blood then shed themselves out of mermaid form and into the human bodies.So that they could live on lands.</p><p> </p><p>Rey always found such legends laughable. Why would those sirens want to live on lands anyway? It was cold here. So cold that everything froze with her own heart.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Rey was adopted into Rose’s family when she was little.She and Rose were about the similar age. Rey had scarcely any memories of her parents. Folks said her parents was getting tired of this boring life on the island so they abandoned their young daughter and left one night. Rose’s family never mentioned Rey’s parents. They treated Rey as their own.</p><p> </p><p>Rose’s parents run an iron shop. Rose had an older sister, Paige. Paige used to work in the local tavern as the serving girl. Last year she married off to the next village. Rose was an apprentice in the tailor’s. Rey had the chance to work at the family’s iron shop.She did not want that. She hated waving hammers and blowing bellows just to forge someone else’s sword. She also took no interest in being covered with flour in bakery or getting blood showered in the butchery. Instead she went huntingin the woods on the edge of the island during the day. Rey was a natural huntress. Once in a while Rose went with her, but for most of the time she was on her own.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Do you think I should take the job?” Rose brought up the question out of nowhere.</p><p> </p><p>“What job?” Rey answered absent-mindedly. She was busy tracking fresh footprints of rabbits on the snow, hoping they would lead her to a lair or something.</p><p> </p><p>“Last night Da said Lynn from the tailor is expecting child.”</p><p> </p><p>“Eh-huh?” Rey failed to put two and two together.</p><p> </p><p>“There will be an opening soon. I think Da would like me to take the vacancy.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, that.”</p><p> </p><p>Rey fell silent for an awfully long time. Rose started feeling uncomfortable when Rey suddenly asked,</p><p> </p><p>“Have you ever thought about leaving?”</p><p> </p><p>“What?”</p><p> </p><p>“Leave this island.”</p><p> </p><p>“For where?”</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t know yet. Just, not <em>here</em>.” Rey shrugged a little, “Maybe some place where islanders can go fishing. I still think we should go fishing.”</p><p> </p><p>“Private fishing is not allowed, Rey.” Rose was horrified, “We can’t afford the license. Last person who got caught fishing without one was almost beaten to death!”</p><p> </p><p>“I know.” Rey muttered, “Cold-blooded bastard, that Lord Snoke.”</p><p> </p><p>“Rey! Don’t you say that again. Lord Snoke is our liege lord. You could get yourself killed for saying that in public.”</p><p> </p><p>“Better than living like this.” Rey’s voice was barely audible.</p><p> </p><p>“We can’t afford leaving. Even if we can, this is home. Why do you want to run away from <em>home</em>?” Rose could not understand.</p><p> </p><p><em>I might be born here, but I will never call this stark place home.</em> Rey thought to herself.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>The waters around the island had no name.Some called it <em>Lacus</em>, which means lake. Elder folks said villagers used to make a living out of fishing. Though none of them made a fortune from it, people enjoyed such self-sufficiency and their quiet, peaceful life on this remote island.</p><p> </p><p>Everything changed when Lord Snoke came.</p><p> </p><p>First he increased fishing tax. Later, private fishing became felony. One had to spent a fortune to apply an official license before he or she went on sails. Most people could not afford. As a consequence, more and more private vessels were abandoned. Before long, this shrew bastard found an excuse to ban the private ships.</p><p> </p><p>If he did that in the first year of his tenure, there surely would be revolts. However, by then most people had found new livelihoods other than fishing. Snoke’s unreasonable verdict was accepted without much objection.</p><p> </p><p>Nowadays every course, every trip was made “officially” and ungodly expensive.The ticket price was getting higher and higher each year. By the time Rey was born, on single ticket could cost the annual income of an average family. There were whispers on the streets, stating the licensed fishermen could smuggle people put for half the price. Such hearsay had never been confirmed. For those who had cut the deal never returned. They might have ended up in the bottom of the lake. No one would know the truth.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Do you believe there exists such a place in the world that has no winter. It would be like, warm and dry all year around?”</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe there is. But I’m still not leaving.”</p><p> </p><p>Rose had always had a strong sense of family responsibility. Rey knew she would never leave her parents.</p><p> </p><p>“But I have to try.” Rey said quietly, “I just, have to.”</p><p> </p><p>It had been a long time since Rey had the idea of leaving. She didn’t have too many memories with her parents to remember them. But there was one particular conversation that haunted her all the time.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>It was in the early autumn when the first snow, a fairly light one, began to fall. She was only three, maybe four, she could not recall. Her mother took her outside the house, stood in the yard, watching the snow falling in silence.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Rey remembered she was being held, all safe and sound against her mother’s chest.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Rey remembered she reached out a hand, watched snowflakes disappearing in her palm in awe.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>“You like it? My love?” Her mother had asked.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>She was too young to understand the cruelty of snow and coldness. She was merely fascinated by the way in which a snow flake would melt into a cool drop on her skin. So she nodded.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>“One day, me and your Da will take you to a land that knows no winter.” Her mother had promised tenderly.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Rey couldn’t recall her mother’s facial expression. It might be a smile, a sad one, it must be. For the day never came, her parents left without her.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>She might never know the truth of her parents leaving. Even if what people said was true, that her parents abandoned her for a better life, she couldn’t blame them. They must have their secret sorrows, too. A child was a dangerous burden in the escaping, she totally understood. Yet maybe they could send back a letter or something, telling her whether they’ve reached the land that knows no winter.</p>
  <p> </p>
</blockquote><p>The solemn on Rey’s face brooked no argument. Rose chewed Rey’s words over for a while. She thought about persuading Rey to stay, yet she couldn’t say the words. Rose guessed deep down in her heart, she was too aware that Rey was bound to leave this place. And for some unknown reasons, Roseactually believed Rey could make it.</p><p> </p><p>Sometimes Rose would have this strange feeling, that even though Rey slept beside her every night, she seemed so distant, sofar away. Rey was brave, strong, quick-witted and thoughtful, always wore a smiley face around the house. People in the neighborhood all liked her. But Rose also knew that no one could tell what was really going on in Rey’s mind behind that lovely smile. Rose wished that she could say she knew Rey.Because of all the people, she was the one who had spent the most time with her.However she couldn’t.</p><p> </p><p>“If you leave, what about Ma and Da?” Rose said.</p><p> </p><p>“They have you.” Rey put on her usual smile, “And Paige. They will be fine.”</p><p> </p><p>“And what about me? I will miss you terribly.”</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t be silly. You wouldn’t even remember my name once you marry Finn and have children.” Rey bantered.</p><p> </p><p>“Of course not!” Rose objected, “I would never——”</p><p> </p><p>“I know. I’d miss you, too.” Rey took Rose’s hand and squeezed it, “You should take the job, you know? You’ll be doing great.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’d be alone if I take the job.”</p><p> </p><p><em>I have always been lonely.</em> Rey almost said it out loud. It would sound too hurtful.She did not.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll be alright.” She assured Rose.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>A wondering pheasant caught Rey’s eyes. She lowered herself behind the bushes, tracking the innocent bird with minimum movement. She was getting close, her heart racing faster. She got too focused on the bird and forgot to pay attention to where she planted her feet.</p><p> </p><p>Rey fell with a yelp. Spooked pheasant got lucky today.It was gone in no time.</p><p> </p><p>“Rey! Are you all right?” Rose followed Rey’s voice.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m fine.” Rey steadied herself.</p><p> </p><p>“You scratched your hands!” Rose sucked in a breath.</p><p> </p><p>Rey did not even notice her wounds until now. It was the coldness. Bitter cold dulled the pain. She did not feel anything until Rose mentioned it. Shegot used to wounds and pain while hunting in these trees. Although she did not have to wrestle with jackals or wolves—— the woods, or the island was simply too small to provide for such fierce creatures—— this was still the wild, and the weather was never in favor.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s alright.” Rey took her hands back from Rose’s, “There’s nothing serious.”</p><p> </p><p>“It could get nasty.” Rose’s brow knitted.</p><p> </p><p>“Never mind. I’ll go wash my hand in the lake.”</p><p> </p><p>It was already late autumn on lands. The water was blissfully cool, and soothing. Kneeling besides the water, Rey carefully rubbed her hands clean.</p><p> </p><p>She watched the ripples on the water slowly disappeared, until the surface went perfectly still again, reflecting her own pasty face.</p><p> </p><p>Her minds wondered while she was staring at her reflection.</p><p> </p><p>Girls about her age usually had a sweetheart by now. They would get married in a year or two and start their own life and family.</p><p> </p><p>Rey never wanted any of those. She saw Rose making eyes at the apprentice boy Finn in the smithy sometimes, but she never made passes at any boys, or girls. Marriage did not feel like her thing. And as for family—— she once had one, then her parents left. Now she had Rose’s family as her own.</p><p> </p><p>Rey had decided this was the last family she shall ever have.</p><p> </p><p>She made a silent self-mockery and reached out a hand, intending to scramble her own reflection. It was not that she would act like Narcissus in some mythology, felt in love with her own image on the water and drowned herself. She was just doing it again, worrying about troubles of her imaging. No one could force her into doing anything she did not want.</p><p> </p><p>Just when her finger tips were about to touch the water, she suddenly noticed her face on the surface was somehow, different.</p><p> </p><p>Her eyes were too dark, almost black; her complexion was too pale, almost transparent.</p><p> </p><p>That was not her face—— it was someoneelse’s.</p><p> </p><p>Someone, or maybe it was <em>something</em>, was peeking at her beneath the water, its face overlapping with her own.</p><p> </p><p>Rey’s blood went cold and stopped dead instantly. Dread seized her mind and body. She forgot to move, to speak.</p><p> </p><p>“Rey? What’s taking you so long?” Rose’s voice dragged her out of immobility, “Is everything all right?”</p><p> </p><p>Hearing the sound, those dark eyes in the water fluttered before vanishing. The face on the water was hers all over again.</p><p> </p><p>Rey sat heavily on her heels. She wanted to say something, but she could not find her voice.</p><p> </p><p>Rose heard no response from Rey, she scurried over.</p><p> </p><p>“Rey! What is it—— Rey, you’re shaking!” Rose hugged her tightly.</p><p> </p><p>Rey felt her blood finally started to move in her body once more. She swallowed hard.</p><p> </p><p>“There’s—— there's <em>something</em>, in the water. There ... there’s a <em>face</em>, the <em>sirens</em>——”</p><p> </p><p>“Now you’re talking nonsense. Sirens are just some made up stories. You must have seen a catfish or something.”</p><p> </p><p>“No, it was <em>right there</em>——” Rey glanced over the water. Just then, thick grey flakes began to fall, only to melt without a sound on the water, leaving barely evident ripples on the surface.</p><p> </p><p>“I could see noting.” Rose shook her head, “It’s snowing now, we should go back.”</p><p> </p><p>Rey stood up with her wobbly legs. There was no way that what she saw was a fish. Fish did not have eyes like that, like the owner of those eyes was appealing to her. Yet Rey refused to overthink it.</p><p> </p><p>Rey nodded. They headed towards the shabby but homely hut.Neither of them said a word on their way back. For cold winds rises once the snow begins. It was hard enough to breathe, not to mention to speak.</p><p> </p><p>She stayed away from the waters as far as possible the whole winter.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Each winter counted the last one for some unfortunate creatures. Their memories would forever stay in the previous autumn, dreaming a spring that would never come.</p><p> </p><p>For survivors, spring came none the less.</p><p> </p><p>Rey wasted no time in mourning, since spring was a good season for hunting. It was still pretty cold out there, and the snow would not change into rain for at least another month. Still that bone-deep freezing was lifted away by not-so-cutting-ones-to-the-marrow winds from the south.</p><p> </p><p>She was treading through the accumulated snow.</p><p> </p><p>Rey followed the footprints towards the shore without noticing. It appeared that the animal went to the lakeside for water, then headed somewhere else.</p><p> </p><p>She eyed the lake suspiciously. Her memory of that face in the water from last autumn was still fresh. Chilly wind was ripping the surface of the lake. She could see nothing beneath it.</p><p> </p><p>Rey shook her head and sighed a little. There should be nothing to worry about as long as she kept a safe distance from the waters. She knelt down in one knee, trying to recognize thefootprints on muddy ground when she heard something.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>A splash.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Rey snapped her attention to the lake, which seemed exactly the same as half a minute ago.</p><p> </p><p>It could be nothing more than a fish jumping out of water, attempting to enjoy the spring breeze.</p><p> </p><p>She stood up, gazed down at the troubled water surface, rabbit hole being long forgotten.</p><p> </p><p>Rey thought she knew what was that sound.</p><p> </p><p>Something must have been watching her in the water.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>---TBC---</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>For those who had read Missed, welcome back!<br/>For those who read the story for the first time, welcome!</p><p>Looking forward to your feedback!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Rey learned archery when she was tall enough to hold a bow. Mr. Tico always said she had a gift in this. Rey had used sharpened wood as arrow for years. They were not ideal, but they worked.</p><p> </p><p>When Rey turned fourteen, Mr. Tico made three fine arrows with iron heads and gave them to Rey as a birthday gift. Rey treasured those arrows dearly. However, she lost one in a pine tree in the first week after she had them. She was aiming at a squirrel in the tree, yet she missed it. The arrow was buried deep in a branch, too high to retrieve. After the incident Rey decided that she would not use the remaining ones unless she was 100% sure she could make a clean shot.</p><p> </p><p>Last year, she lost the second one.</p><p> </p><p>To be fair, she hit the target that time. Even so, that little roe dear somehow managed to escape with the arrow in its leg.</p><p> </p><p>This time, Rey lost the last one, and she lost it in the waters.</p><p> </p><p>Summer was rolling over the island by then. Last week Jannah gave birth to a girl, Rey was on her own since then.</p><p> </p><p>Though summer would not last for more than a month or so, it was still the driest season of the year. Animals would gather beside the lake for water when the weather was fine. Rey had found that drinking animals were easy targets. So she had spent a lot of time near the shore, meanwhile ignoring the occasional splash sound in the waters.</p><p> </p><p><em>That thing</em> was still there.</p><p> </p><p>She aimed the arrow carefully at a fox, the animal flinched at the last minute. Then the last fine arrow with iron head disappeared in the water with a whiz.</p><p> </p><p>“Darn it.” Rey muttered.</p><p> </p><p>This was last one. Mr. Tico would be devastated if he found out Rey had lost all three of them. Owning an iron shop did not mean they had endless source of iron. None of the metal belonged to them. They just did the forge, that is all.</p><p> </p><p>She did not know how to swim. But it seemed the arrow did not land too far, and the weather was warmer now. She could take her chance.</p><p> </p><p>Rey took off her boots, striped herself except underwear, then stepped into the lake.</p><p> </p><p>The water was cool around her. She curled her toes, kept purchase on slick cobblestones on the bottom with her feet, clinging to all the fraction she could find to keep herself from tripping. Water reached her shoulder blade while she walked cautiously towards where the arrow had disappeared. Breathing became difficult once the water immersed her chest, yet she could still manage. She stopped there, drew a deep breath, dipped her face into the lake and opened her eyes under the water, searching for the missing arrow.</p><p> </p><p>It was right there, lying among weeds and more pebble stones.</p><p> </p><p>She was going to raise up her head, change for another breath and then pick it up when she saw a shadow sweeping pass in the corner of her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>
    <em>A shadow with human upper body and a fish tail.</em>
  </p><p> </p><p>Her heart skipped a beat, then somehow the pebble stones beneath her feet were to slippery to stand on, she slipped and fell over, plunging into the water.</p><p> </p><p>She was drowning.</p><p> </p><p>Rey desperately kicked her legs, trying to stand up and regain her balance, yet in her panic she could see nothing or find the lakebed.</p><p> </p><p>She wanted to scream, but only gurgling noise came out of her mouth; she wanted to breathe, but there was no air, just water. Endless cool, bracing water which turned into flame once it came into her nose, burning all the way down her throat.</p><p> </p><p>The heartbeat she had skipped before failed to catch up. There were loud noises in her ears, which was the sound of her heart beating more and more slowly.</p><p> </p><p>It felt like the lake itself had suddenly become a giant hand made of water, squeezing every bit of air out of her lungs, along with her life out of her body.</p><p> </p><p>
    <em>I can't die here. This can't be the end of me.</em>
  </p><p> </p><p>Like the god had heard her prayer and decided to answer, she drifted up, head above the water. She could breathe again.</p><p> </p><p>Her frantic lungs swelled open like a bellow dragging in a rush of air. She had never learned the air could be this incredibly sweet and refreshing. Moments later, she caught her breath in slow, measured, deep drafts, feeling her heart thumping in her chest in a steady pace before the realization hit her——she was being held by something behind her back.</p><p> </p><p>
    <em>The shadow, the siren——</em>
  </p><p> </p><p>Whoever or whatever was holding her, was a male. She could feel his hot, ragged breath on her neck, his arms clasped around her waist like iron talons. His inexpressibly wide chest against her back was bare and <em>warm</em>—— she had expected something cold and repulsive, but it was not. His upper body felt no different than hers, only more beefy and solid. While she was in her knickers, her breast band barely covered her chest due to her previous wild floundering. Rey suddenly grew strangely conscious of herself, her blood rushing towards her skin, her whole body flushed.</p><p> </p><p>Then she saw the tail. She had never seen anything like that before, so lithe yet so powerful. It was at least six feet long, covered with flawless black scales, a forked fin at its end.</p><p> </p><p>Rey wondered how it would feel beneath her touch.</p><p> </p><p>As if he could read Rey’s mind, the siren swirled his tail around her legs, slightly brushed her calves and ankles.</p><p> </p><p>The sensation was so surreal, it made her skins crawl, sending minor electricity all the way up to her scalp.</p><p> </p><p>It felt smooth and cool at the same time, but not so smooth like some slimy loaches she used to catch in the creeks. It was silky and tender, while the strength and agility did not go unnoticed under its gorgeous appearance.</p><p> </p><p>It was the most beautiful thing she had ever set eyes on. Surprisingly, Rey had the abrupt urge the see his face, she wanted the know whether his face was as beautiful as his tail.</p><p> </p><p>Then her muzzy head suddenly clarified.</p><p> </p><p>What was she thinking! It was a siren! A siren! So the legends were true then, she must be witched by it. Otherwise there were no explanation for her eccentric thoughts.</p><p> </p><p>Rey panicked, she began to pry at the arms around her waist and writhe in his hold. The siren loosened his grip without much resistance. She stroked frantically towards the shore, made her way up in awkward moves.</p><p> </p><p>She gasped when her hands and knees reached solid land, panting. She put her clothes back on with clumsy fingers and turned around, took a last look at the siren before she hurried off with a troubled mind. Their eyes met, His dark eyes were fixed on her, implacable and searching.</p><p> </p><p>She must have lost her mind.</p><p> </p><p>And it was not until after she went back to the house, did she realized that the arrow she was going to get was still lying on the bottom of the lake.</p><p> </p><p>She was never going to have her arrow back, wasn’t she?</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Later that night, something changed. First it was the dream.</p><p> </p><p>Rey should be dreaming about drowning after what had happened during the day. But she wasn't. She was under the water, the same lake which had threatened to swallow her whole. However, in her dream, the water was gentle and caressing, like a loving mother holding her child of tender years. She noticed how light was refracted when passing through the surface, since the trees on the shore was distorted in a funny way. The lake itself was calm and clear below, like a piece of fine glass—— the kind which the common folks could never afford. Then she looked down, there was a tail covered with smooth dark scales. Rey kicked her legs, there was nothing. Only the tail lashed out, churning the water around.</p><p> </p><p>Rey woke up with a small yelp.</p><p> </p><p>“No——”</p><p> </p><p>
    <em>This is wrong.</em>
  </p><p> </p><p>“Rey?” Rose’s voice was slurred with sleep, “Bad dreams, again?”</p><p> </p><p>Rey did not answer. She had not told Rose about her little incident earlier.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s alright, come here.” Rose did not wait for her answer. She shifted in her bed and made room for Rey.</p><p> </p><p>Rose did that every time when Rey had troubling dreams. Rey used to scream and cry in her nightmares, waking up everyone in the house for the first several years of her life with the Tico’s.</p><p> </p><p>Rey got out of her bed and climbed into Rose’s, snugged against her adopted sister. Rose’s warm body and even breathes were comforting and soothing as always.</p><p> </p><p>Her previous dream still lingered, a sense of heaviness in her stomach. If what she had encountered was a siren, why didn’t he sing his siren song and let her drown? He saved her, didn’t he? Well, to be fair, Rey wouldn’t lose her balance if weren’t for his appearance in the first place.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe he was something else? Some other kind of lake monster? No, he was too good-looking to be a monster, and still it could not explain why he had saved her from drowning. Then a lake god, perhaps?</p><p> </p><p>“Rose?” Rey said in a hushed voice.</p><p> </p><p>“Emm-hmm?”</p><p> </p><p>“Do you remember the tales that Ma used to tell us when we were young?”</p><p> </p><p>“Which one?”</p><p> </p><p>“The one which taught us that honesty should be rewarded. A farmer accidently dropped an iron axe in the river, then a god emerged from the river with a gold one, asking whether it was the axe the farmer had lost.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, of course.”</p><p> </p><p>“Do you think there might be a similar being in our lake?”</p><p> </p><p>“Why did you say that?”</p><p> </p><p>“I saw something in the lake again today.” Rey swallowed, “Something that definitely wasn’t a fish.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’re still obsessed with that siren thing?”</p><p> </p><p>Rey huffed in the darkness.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t——”</p><p> </p><p>“So, instead of the siren, now you think you saw a lake god there?”</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe?”</p><p> </p><p>“Rey, if I haven’t known you for years, I’d thought you were making things up because you didn’t want to walk that woods alone.”</p><p> </p><p>Rey made a noise of protest.</p><p> </p><p>“Just go to sleep, Rey. You’ll know better in the morning.” Rose murmured, then she rolled over and fell asleep.</p>
<p></p><div>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Rey stayed awake for a little while before she drifted off. Soon the dreams consumed her again. This time, she was her own. She was naked, standing on the lakeside. It was cold, but there was something inside her body that kept her warm, like a dull fire burning. And there he was, with his chiseled shoulder and chest above water, he was looking at her, seeing <em>right through</em> her.</p>
</div><p> </p><p>She moved. Slowly but surely she walked towards the lake. Water immersed her feet, calves, then thighs, she paid it no mind. She stopped when the water was about her waist high, and she was standing right in front of <em>him</em>.</p><p> </p><p>She was taller than him this way, so she lowered her head to look at him, appreciating his luscious-looking hair, his bold nose, his pale skin dotted with beauty marks and he returned her attention with longing and hungry in his honey-brown eyes. Rey had tried to persuade herself that he might be some kind of lake god other than a merman, but now he was looking up at her like she was the goddess; he was looking up to her as if asking for the permission to worship her. So she granted him, she leaned in and planted a searing kiss on his incredibly soft, warm lips, he tasted like fresh spring tinged with sap and maple syrup.</p><p> </p><p>His pupils dilated, his eyes almost black. He wrapped his hand around her waist, almost taking a full hold of her, and extended the kiss to somewhere else. His devoted mouth traced her jawline to the column of her neck, to her delicate collarbone and then down to her firm breasts.</p><p> </p><p>He sucked in one of her already hardened nipples and tended it with his tongue. She let out a soft sigh of satisfaction mixed with pleasure. Being encouraged by her reaction, he worked harder. She twined her fingers in his mop of dark hair, slightly tugging at its roots as a silent warning—— <em>do not forget the other side.</em> He obeyed, gave its twin equal respect like a devout disciple before leading the way down past her abdomen to her navel on the water level, and further down until his head was submerged into water.</p><p> </p><p>Rey startled with a most ungoddess-like moan, her heart pounding in her ribcage, racing too fast.</p><p> </p><p>It was still pitch dark. Rose was fast asleep beside, Rey followed Rose’s even breathes, steadying her own fluttering pulses. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the slickness between her thighs and managed to get some undisturbed sleep before the sun coming out.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>She is definitely not knowing better in the morning.</p><p> </p><p>Otherwise she should run away, which could solve the problem once and for all. She should probably find some work in town like Rose and never set foot to the woods or near the lake again. Yet here she was, stepping into the woods one more time.</p><p> </p><p>She told herself, lied to herself that she only came back because they needed food. She came back to the same place where she almost drowned yesterday because this is a perfect spot for hunting. Then——</p><p> </p><p>There it was. The arrow. The arrow that she had lost yesterday was somehow, lying on the rock by the lakeside.</p><p> </p><p>The legends, the sirens in the lake. They might be true.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It has been years since she hunted in these woods. No one actually agreed with her choice. People always asked her why she wouldn't find a proper work in town, learn a trade, have a life.</p><p> </p><p>This <em>is</em> her life.</p><p> </p><p>The siren, or whatever monster it could be, got back her last arrow with iron head. At least it showed some respect to what she has been doing. No matter what, it saved her yesterday. She wanted to meet it.</p><p> </p><p>---TBC---</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! English is my second language so it took me A LOT of effort to pull it off. I'm really satisfied with this chapter, I wish you would like it as I did!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rey stood on the shore just like she did in her dream. She was fully dressed, a small stone clung tight in her palm. She gripped it too hard. Her knuckles whitened and the stone’s sharp edge was biting into her flesh.</p><p> </p><p>She took a deep breath and opened her palm, let loose the stone. It dropped into the lake with a splash sound, sending ripples away.</p><p> </p><p>Nothing happened.</p><p> </p><p>Was her doing it wrong? If there <em>is</em> a siren living the lake, it should have noticed the movement.</p><p> </p><p>Perhaps a stone was not enough?</p><p> </p><p>She hesitated for a while, then took off her boots, rolled up her trousers and stepped into the water again. Yesterday’s drowning experience still haunted her. She stopped when the water reached her knees. She dared not to go any further.</p><p> </p><p>This should be enough? She was in the water again. Surely the siren should be aware of her by now.</p><p> </p><p>The lake seemed stagnant and lifeless.</p><p> </p><p>She stood in the water for a long time, until the cool water has taken away most of her heat and her toes were icy and numb.</p><p> </p><p>She went back on land, disappointed.</p><p> </p><p>Could it be just her illusions? Maybe yesterday the arrow didn’t end up in the lake. She made a mistake, got herself into trouble and then somehow managed to save herself in the crisis. But that wouldn’t explain the face. The mesmerizing face which also appeared in her dream. Right, in her <em>dream</em>.</p><p> </p><p>Wait a minute. What happened yesterday was real, right? She didn’t dream it all and was hallucinating, did she? What about all those splash sound? What about the bizarre feeling of being touched by a fishtail?</p><p> </p><p>She couldn’t give herself a positive answer. Maybe Rose was right. Her mind was making things up. She had been indeed alone in these woods for too long.</p><p> </p><p>Rey knew what man’s mind was capable of in desperate times. She had seen it herself. A couple of years ago, there was a young lad in the village who lost his mind when his wife died of typhia. After the neighbors buried the body, the lad claimed that his wife had come back. He kept telling people his wife was still alive and well.</p><p> </p><p>“She’s right there, sitting on the porch. Don’t you see her?” He would point at the hollow stairs and ask the bystanders.</p><p> </p><p>In the end the lad starved himself to death because he refused to eat or drink. He insisted that his wife had prepared food while in fact he was just gawking at empty plates day after day.</p><p> </p><p>Could it be true? That her solitude and loneliness finally drove her mad, and what happened was just a wishful illusion of her crazy mind?</p><p> </p><p>She pushed down her tangled thoughts. She had wasted too much time on this. She may have lied about why she came back to the woods, yet she did need to. It was not because they needed food. Truth to be told the iron shop could afford the four of them. She needed extra money for her escape plan. She had been saving money for some time. Every time when she found luck and had more than enough gain she would sell it on the market and put away the money. She decided when she saved enough, she would buy a ticket and leave this place for good.</p><p> </p><p>These legends, the sirens, would only be a minute background story after she left and looked back.</p><p> </p><p>Rey snatched her arrow and went to look for preys. She needed to focus.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Her determination wavered when she saw a little stone on the rock by lakeside the very next day. The same location where she found her arrow yesterday, with the exact same stone which she tossed into the lake yesterday. She recognized it because of the sharp edge around it.</p><p> </p><p>So she was <em>not</em> crazy. She had every bit of sane and that <em>thing</em> in the lake was clearly messing with her. At this point she was even a little bit pissed off. How dare it, to fool her, to make her think she had gone mad.</p><p> </p><p>She is going to find out the truth of the legend.Oh, she will drag it out and teach it a lesson.She only needed a bait.</p><p> </p><p>Later that day, after she put her bag full, Rey went to the lakeside. There was nothing much on her that she could use. She thought for a while, then removed the simple silver ring on her thumb. This is one of the few pieces of jewelry she had. She threw it away into the lake.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>She had sneaked her way out of bed with a dim kerosene lamp in hand that night, her bow and arrow on the back. Reywalked towards the lakeside without a false step or any hesitation. The trees made a sieve of moonlight. She knew these trees. The three-foot diameter of light spread from her arm and then was absorbed into blackness. As she moved, new trees emerged and others disappeared.</p><p> </p><p>She put the light out about thirty yards away from the lake. She hid herself behind a tree and waited.</p><p> </p><p>The lake was beautiful under the moonlight, shining like a pool of molten silver. Rey was in no mood of appreciating the shades of night. She was looking for something else, <em>someone</em> else.</p><p> </p><p>She could wait. She knew everything about waiting.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, her patience paid off. There was disturbance on the surface. She drew the bow tight, aiming at the rock by the lakeside. Rey held her breath.</p><p> </p><p>That was when things went wrong.</p><p> </p><p>It happened so fast, too fast. She never meant to hurt him. She was aiming at the rock to scare him a little bit, at most. But when he emerged from water and revealed himself, she forgot her breath. His face and shoulders and chest were exactly the same as she remembered, yet his hair—— unlike the smooth, dark, dried mane from her exotic dream, was dripping wet.It was kind of discordant but adorable at the same time.</p><p> </p><p>She was going to drop the bow when an owl screeched overhead. The nocturnal bird must have noticed the unusual stir in the water, too. Rey got startled and loosened her grip in the string.</p><p> </p><p>The arrow flew away with a woosh. It went straight towards him.</p><p> </p><p>She dropped her bow for real this time and raced towards the lake. It was too late. He had disappeared. She must have hurt him.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sorry!” She shouted. Echoes of her calling floated in the air. All those “teach him a lesson” thoughts had been put behind.</p><p> </p><p>Rey felt the sting of tears in her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Please! I didn’t mean it!” She dropped onto the ground.</p><p> </p><p>What had she done?</p><p> </p><p>She went through all these trouble to find him. Now he finally showed up, she had shot him and scared him away.</p><p> </p><p><br/>She pressed the heels of her palm on her eyes and began to sob. She didn’t understand how this frustration had come from all of a sudden. So the legend was true. There was a siren in the lake. But unlike the legend where sirens were depicted as dangerous, monstrous creatures. This one here was gentle and timid and <em>different</em>. The thought of not seeing him again was somehow, suffocating.</p><p> </p><p><br/>Rey was about to give up and turned back when she heard noises again.</p><p> </p><p><br/>He was back. He was here.</p><p> </p><p>He was holding her arrow in hand. She got closer to the shore. The arrow wounded half of his face and his shoulder. The wounds had already healed into pink scars. So the sirens must have some kind of superpowers. What a relief, she could stop being worried and thank god the scars didn’t ruin his beautiful face.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey. I’m sorry. I’m... I’m Rey. Oh, thank you for bring back the arrow.” She stuttered and dared not to look at him in the eye, “I, I thought you won’t come back.”</p><p> </p><p>He was still holding out his hand to her even after she received the arrow.</p><p> </p><p><br/>There was something else in his palm. A pearl. Almost half an inch in diameter, perfectly round, milky white with a touch of gold under the moonlight.</p><p> </p><p>“Is it for me?”</p><p> </p><p>He nodded.</p><p> </p><p>“Ehh… Where is my ring?”</p><p> </p><p>He shook his head.</p><p> </p><p>Rey took the pearl from him and carefully tucked it in her pocket. His hand was still reaching out.</p><p> </p><p>“Why? You want me to hold your hand?”Suddenly she got nervous.</p><p> </p><p><br/>He nodded once more.</p><p> </p><p><br/>“You can’t talk?”</p><p> </p><p><br/>He nodded again.</p><p> </p><p><br/>“You can’t talk. But you can understand me, right?”</p><p> </p><p><br/>He nodded one more time.</p><p> </p><p><br/>“Okay then. Let’s do this.”</p><p> </p><p>She gingerly put her hand into his. She noticed that his hand was huge, dwarfing hers, wet but warm. Rey had always thought a siren should be cold-blooded. What’s the point of being warm when you live in a pool of cool water?</p><p> </p><p>It took her a long while to come to the awareness that it wasn’t because he was warm, it was because she was too cold.</p><p> </p><p>The siren gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Then she started to see things. Oh, so the siren could not talk, but it was able to show visions as long as their skins touched. He was telling her he disappeared early to find her arrow on the bottom of the lake.</p><p> </p><p>It was a little bit overwhelming. Seeing the whole world in a different angle, feeling the water in a different way. Yet, it was strangely familiar, just like what she had in the dreams before.</p><p> </p><p>“I see that.” Rey said in a hushed voice. Rey prayed that the sound of her heartbeat could be smaller. “I’m sorry again. Can you read my thoughts, too?”</p><p> </p><p>He shook his head.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s alright.” Rey beamed at him, “I’ll tell you mine.”</p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Ben has been her secret hunting companion ever since that night. Right, she called him Ben now. Rey had asked about his name. Clearly his original name was in Siren’s language and Rey couldn’t pronounce it. She decided to call him Benjamin. When she told him her decision, he neither nodded or shook his head. He took her wrist and replayed her saying that name. So she would know he had accepted it.</p><p> </p><p><br/>She enjoyed Ben’s accompany greatly. She never had that before. All her life she felt like a misfit, tiptoeing around people. However, it seemed to Rey that spending time with Ben was the strangest yet the easiest thing. It was simply, natural.</p><p> </p><p><br/>She didn’t have to pretend, acting to be someone else or feigning reactions because Ben would never judge her for anything. When she was with him she was neither the adopted daughter of the Tico family nor the abandoned child who turned herself into a good huntress. She was just Rey, a nobody. And she liked the unconstraint and the independence that a nobody could imply.</p><p> </p><p><br/>Her life had not changed much. She still went to the woods, gleaning and hunting everyday so long as the weather allowed. Ben was the only variation. <em>Benjamin the Siren</em>, she thought of him like that, always Ben first.</p><p> </p><p>On bad days she worked till dark, trudging extra miles to take her chances. On such occasions they did nothing more than acknowledging each other’s presence. Some days when Rey got lucky, she would take off her boots, roll up her trousers, and spend her late afternoons sitting on a rock beside the lake with her bare feet immersed in cool water—— it had been a year since she accidently shot him. Summer was here on the island again. He would come close, then the two of them watched the sunset together. One day he came too close and pressed the side of his face on her shin. Rey was startled at first, her heart tapping a giddy rhythm in her ribcage. Then she relaxed and calmed down when he made no further move. It was all ascetic.</p><p> </p><p>Rey blamed her wild dreams.</p><p> </p><p><br/>She liked his touch, though. The gentle pressure when their skin touched, light as a feather yet somehow anchored her like gravity. And she wanted more.</p><p> </p><p><br/>She nudged his shoulder with her heel.</p><p> </p><p>Ben turned his head around and looked at her with question in his eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Will you teach me how to swim?” Rey asked.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He did not respond.</p><p> </p><p>“No?”</p><p> </p><p>Ben slowly turned around and put his hand around her ankle. Then she saw his concern.</p><p> </p><p><br/>Rey didn’t bother to explain, instead she began to strip and then jumped into the lake.</p><p> </p><p>She knew he would catch her.</p><p> </p><p><br/>He grabbed her upper arm firmly the moment she fell into the water. Rey caught his other arm to steady herself. She smiled at him, planted both her hands on his shoulders. His skin was smooth. She could feel his tight muscles beneath the fingertips. She wondered whether he would enjoy her touches like she enjoyed his. She tried swung her legs, slowly pushing him backwards.</p><p> </p><p><br/>He loosened his grip on her arm and followed her rhythm, leading her in the water.</p><p> </p><p>She took adeep breath and plunged her head.She didn’t rush to open her eyes. She held her breath and tried to relax her body in darkness, turning herself over to Ben and the lake itself. It was a bit terrifying. Only a couple of months ago this very lake could have been the end of her. Then she felt Ben had gently cupped her elbows with his hands, providing support and comfort. Meanwhile he was showing her how he had swum in the oceans. She relaxed more, that was when she really floated. The sense of being disorientated became stronger since she could see nothing. She felt like a leaf drifting in the water, except unlike a real stray leaf which had no destination, she had Ben guiding her. At this moment, in this lake, Ben was her cause and destiny.</p><p> </p><p>She was certain that Ben was there for her. He would respond to her motion and keep her safe. She raised up her head for a change of breath, his intent gaze on her all the time.</p><p> </p><p>Once Rey had harnessed the trick of floating and changing breathes, the rest was easy. After all, Rey was learning from the best teacher. Before long, she began to enjoy the elegant sway of Ben’s tail and the view of his abs flexing as he moved seamlessly while she was swimming beside him.</p><p> </p><p><br/>Rey had always wondered how his body looked like when he was moving in the water. She had no clear vision on land. From then on, Rey knew exactly what to imagine when she watched him swimming from the shore.</p><p> </p><p>---TBC---</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It has been more than a year since Rey got to know Ben. His appearance has slowed her course of saving money. Rey should be leaving six months ago. She could have just sell the pearl. It must worth a lot. Sell the pearl, she could say goodbye to this sullen place in the very same hour. Yet she didn’t feel like it.</p><p> </p><p>She had a plan, nothing should interrupt her plan, not even Ben himself.</p><p> </p><p>She liked Ben, for sure. Rey was tired of dodging. She didnot belong here. People kept saying they knew about her, but the truth was no one actually understood Rey. But Ben did. They have shared life stories of each other. They both had grown up as outsiders and so could switch allegiances, could replace lose. He saw her in a way no one else ever had. And <em>good lord</em>, how she wanted to be seen.</p><p> </p><p>However, she couldn't let herself get too attached. She hated this island. Ben being here would not make it any better. The only reason she was still stay here was to wait in case her parents came back one day. She used to tell herself that she needed to wait longer. As she grew older, she realized there was a good chance that her parents would never return. She would not waste her life in this stupid place.</p><p> </p><p>She tried to hold herself back. But it was getting harder and harder, especially after she learned swimming with him.Sometimes she just wanted to stay in the water with him for a whole day, doing nothing. Just stay there, be with him.</p><p> </p><p>She cannot. Now she had enough money. This was the time to say goodbye.</p><p> </p><p>She kept telling herself this was right thing to do. This was not about the island or Ben. This was about herself. She deserved a better life than this.</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Rey found an excuse, telling Ben she needed to handle some family errands and stayed clear from the woods for a few days.</p><p> </p><p>She secretly made the deal with some fishermen, packed up her stuff and prepared to leave.</p><p> </p><p>She planned to leave a note for the Ticos. She was pretty sure they would understand her decision. She only needed to break the news to Ben before she left.</p><p> </p><p>This was going to be her last night on the island.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>She came to say goodbye eventually.</p><p> </p><p>She got into the lake, enjoyed being surrounded by the waters and him for one last time. It was getting dark. Early stars were faintly discernible on eastern sky. Her body was heavy and sluggish when she stood on solid land with her feet again, the whole world slightly shifting beneath her.</p><p> </p><p>She dressed up, unbounded her buns and wrung the hair, let it fall on the shoulders.</p><p> </p><p>Then she turned around. Ben was still there, watching her the whole time.</p><p> </p><p>“Ben, I need to tell you something.”</p><p> </p><p>Ben gave her a barely visible nod and waited.</p><p> </p><p>“I——”</p><p> </p><p>Her words came to an abrupt stop. A spear came behind Ben. She didn’t notice the spear punctuating the air, only the noise of broken bones and muscles. Then the pointed metal head came right through his chest.</p><p> </p><p>The puzzled look froze on his face while he collapsed slowly backwards.</p><p> </p><p>She heard shrills. She could not tell whether they came from herself. She jumped into the lake again, trying to get hold of him. There was blood everywhere. As if the whole lake was made of a pool of blood, Ben’s blood. She could not find him under the water. She was trapped in a circle of scarlet curtains.</p><p> </p><p>She lost him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Rey’s eyes snapped open in the dark. Her heart was pounding. <em>It was just a dream, it was nothing. Ben is safe in the lake. </em></p><p> </p><p>She tried to convince herself to go back to sleep again, but failed. The dream was too real and she was <em>afraid</em>.</p><p> </p><p>There was a mage on the other side of the village, claiming she could dream the future. Rey had always believed it was just some sort of deceitful trick, pretending to be a fortune teller to make money. She had used to believe the legends of siren were just made up stories warning people against sailing at night. Then she met Ben. She was no mage. But what if the part of dreaming the future was a true thing? This dream, it was different. It was too real. She could almost taste his blood on her tongue, feel his pain in the chest—— or her pain, she could not tell.</p><p> </p><p>She thought for a second or two, then groped her way out of bed.She wanted to make sure he was safe. She should warn him.</p><p> </p><p>She began to run once she got outside the door. She ran towards the woods.</p><p> </p><p>The fog was rolling in over the island that night, like an ominous blanket. The woods smelled a little different from the day. She kept running, stumbling along roots and bushes. The woods were in absolute stillness except for the occasionally faint chirping of the insects. Her heart skipped each time when a fallen twig broke under her foot.Itsounded like some giant, invisible beast was stalking her. Lower branches brushed her shoulders, as if the woods had reluctant hands trying to pull her back. She pushed them away and kept moving until she saw the lake.</p><p> </p><p>Seeing the lake itself had made all the horrible memories in her dream flooded back.</p><p> </p><p>Rey plunged herself in the water, reaching, searching.She had learned how to swim. Yet her body was stiff and tired from the dream and the hasty trip through the woods. Also the waters in the night was much cooler than in the daytime. She was losing her strength real quick. Right before she was about to drown herself again, she managed a strangled noise,</p><p> </p><p>“Ben——”</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>So this was it. She was going to die before she even left this miserable island. She was exhausted. She must be too tired to breathe.</p><p> </p><p>She crashed into a strong chest. She could breathe again.</p><p> </p><p>He was so close. She could feel his warmth, smell his skin.</p><p> </p><p>“Ben, Ben. I had a dream.” was all she had said.</p><p> </p><p>Ben was there with her. He didn’t show her any vision. He was just there, supporting her in the water.</p><p> </p><p>Ben was safe. She was safe, too. His embrace felt so good, so right. She forgot to warn him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>The siren couldn’t recall how many years were ahead of him. In the very early days of his life, he remembered there were more of his kind. They all lived in the Great Sea, in endless blue brine waters. His mother, uncle and others who had already came of age would sing together in the middle of night, luring sailors to keep themselves safe since the greediness and curiosity of the human beings could never be satisfied. Sometimes there were collateral damage when innocent travelers also got distracted. Then more humans came after them.</p><p> </p><p>It was a vicious circle.</p><p> </p><p>Singing couldn't solve the problem. Because when a siren sang the song, the actual siren’s song, he had to sing it with his heart and soul. And there would be consequences. <em>Everything comes with a price.</em> Therefore, over time these sirens learned to hide their traces and stay away from lands, from humans. Bit by bit, facts became tales, tales became myth. Today the existence of the sirens was nothing more than a distant legend. And between the legends a groundless secret was being exchanged among a group of corrupted human magnates claiming that drinking the siren’s blood could bring unprecedented powers.</p><p> </p><p>Being negligent of neither the legend nor the harmful rumor, they lived in seclusion for the most of the time, except for one special occasion.</p><p> </p><p>Sirens have their own coming-of-age rites. A young siren must leave the clan, the farther away the better, to lure a human on his or her own, to prove a siren’s capability.</p><p> </p><p>He left when the time had come. He headed north, past the estuary and arrived at this lake which had been visited by many of his seniors. This lake was the northernmost place a siren could stay, farther up the waters would freeze in the winter.</p><p> </p><p>By the time he arrived, Snoke had banned personal vessels. Of course he wouldn’t know that. And those official sails were always so crowded that he was worried it might burst. He just needed <em>one</em> human being, he didn’t mean to sink the whole ship, which would be too cruel.</p><p> </p><p>The stray sailor or fisherman he had waited never appeared, so he decided he would get closer to the shore despite the warnings from the elderly. Maybe he would find some unfortunate passersby.</p><p> </p><p>That was when he noticed two young female humans.</p><p> </p><p>One was shorter, with round face and black hair and liked to chitchat. The other was taller and leaner, who didn’t talk much but moved fast and swift, who carried a bow and a heavy heart.</p><p> </p><p>Yes, a heavy heart, something was weighing on her mind. He could just tell.</p><p> </p><p>These two girls—— that's how they call their female under ages—— seldom came near to the waters. He had his chances, for sure. In fact, on many occasions there was only one girl. But he couldn’t do it.</p><p> </p><p>No one should sink with a sinking heart.</p><p> </p><p>He waited. He lurked under the water and waited.</p><p> </p><p>One day he noticed an unusual disturbance, there was the taste of blood in the lake. Was someone hurt? He rushed to see what was going on.</p><p> </p><p>It was the taller one.</p><p> </p><p>For a moment he thought she had seen him, then he found out she was just staring at her own reflection on the surface. He couldn’t help but came closer, to have a better look of her.</p><p> </p><p>She was younger than he had expected, or older, he didn’t know what he had expected. He liked that her hair was tied up in three neat buns so that he could take in an uninterrupted view of her clean-cut features. Her eyes were the color of brown seaweed and her lips the coral. She had an exquisite nose and slender cheek bones.</p><p> </p><p>It would be a perfect opportunity. The girl was so close. If he could sing in a voice just loud enough to captivate her and exempt the other one—— but the look on her face made him hesitate. She seemed sad, but not too sad to weep. She seemed worried and determined at the same time. That heaviness in her heart, there it was, <em>she must be lonely</em>.</p><p> </p><p>For the first time in his life he realized that he didn’t want to sing. He decided that this singing for killing tradition was just nonsense. His life wasn’t in danger. What he really wanted to do was to hear her story, to figure out her soreness and resolution, to promise her that she would no longer be alone again.</p><p> </p><p>Then she did saw him. He must have scared her.How stupid he was.</p><p> </p><p>He fled as quickly as he could when he heard the sound of another girl.</p><p> </p><p>He lost her for the whole winter.</p><p> </p><p>It could just be the weather. Although the waters stay untouched, he knew the ground would freeze and wandering around the woods in snow wasn’t exactly a wise choice. He would never forgive himself if she never returned. And thank the Rain that she did come back when the spring came.</p><p> </p><p>This time he would make things right.</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>He saved her life. Yet somehow it seemed he has scared her more. So he decided to stay low—— until she <em>caught</em> him.</p><p> </p><p>He didn’t blame her for the accident shot. He knew she never meant it. He had seen her tears and remorse. Regardless, sirens healed quickly. So it really didn’t bother him.</p><p> </p><p>He was glad she didn’t try to avoid him anymore.</p><p> </p><p>He spent his entire life under water, his skin was always pale and hers was ... different. Sometimes when Rey was enjoying the sunset, he was stealing glances of her. The way her skin was painted gold and rosy by the sunlight, her hard features softened. Ben had secretly decided that between the two of them, she should be the siren. A land siren, perhaps, luring him with her perfect look and skin. He never got the chance to properly appreciate those before.Now when he did pay attention, he couldn’t have enough of her beauty.</p><p> </p><p>He didn’t even realize he was doing so when he reached towards her and pressed his face on her body. He was startled, too. What had he done? What if she didn’t like his touch and thought he went too far? What if she kicked him away in disgust——</p><p> </p><p>She didn’t.</p><p> </p><p>Then she said she wanted to learn how to swim from him.Oh, oh, she was going to enter the water. It turned out she wanted more of him.</p><p> </p><p>His heart swelled.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Sirens were born to be sensitive to any uncommon movement in the water, even in their sleep. It was supposed to be an instinct built to avoid danger, surely such gift also came handy at other times.</p><p> </p><p>He was sleeping in his bed of float weed when he felt the disturbance. It could be a restless school of fish—— fishes had a too comfortable life in this lake ever since the number of fisherman reduce a lot due to fishing license. He rolled over, trying to ignore that when he heard the distant sound.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Ben.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>That’s his name. That’s the name Rey had given him. Ben was suddenly wide awake. He rushed towards the sound as fast as he could.</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>His heart almost stopped when he found her. She could be drowned any time. She learned how to swim. Something must have troubled her too much.</p><p> </p><p>He dared not to image what would happen if he didn’t make it in time.</p><p> </p><p>He held her in his arms, crushing her a little bit. Her arms and legs were weak but she was still breathing. Her feeble exhaleswere the sweetest sound he had ever heard in his life.</p><p> </p><p>She had a terrifying dream. She needed not to say more. He could feel her fear and horror. <em>She was afraid. </em>He had seen sadness, frustration, hesitation—— but never once had he seen fear in her. He had always thought Rey was a fearless little creature in nature.</p><p> </p><p>After a while Rey regained her strength. He knew that because Rey had wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and her legs his waist. She held him dear like he would disappear the next second.</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Rey thought she would say her proper goodbye tomorrow. She wanted to enjoy the moment while she still can.</p><p> </p><p>That tomorrow she was looking forward to never came.</p><p> </p><p><br/>---TBC---</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>She thought he was her escape.<br/>Yet in the end, she left without him.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wrote this chapter listening to The River of No Return. Recommend it to you guys.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She went back to the woods one last time.</p><p> </p><p>She didn’t realize it was rain when it started.</p><p> </p><p>She heard the rustles among the leaves and branches above her head. It took her several moments to realize it was not starlings. It was the sound of rain drops tapping the canopy of the woods.</p><p> </p><p>After a while, she felt the drop on her skin and she had smelt it. The smell of rain on the island.</p><p> </p><p>This would be last rain of the year. Next would be snow.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Ben didn’t show up that day.</p><p> </p><p>And the day after.</p><p> </p><p>Fishermen’s stowaway ship left without Rey. She waited.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe something happened and he was needed somewhere else. Maybe these days were some special festival of his kind. He went off to celebrate it with his kin.</p><p> </p><p>Rey pretended nothing happened and resumed her mundane life. She kept going into the woods for hunting every day. She insisted even when the weather would not allow.</p><p> </p><p>There was no trace of him for the whole month. Soon winter came and snow began to fall.</p><p> </p><p>The lake never froze on record. No one knew how far the record dated back to. The waters simply did not freeze no matter how cold the winter was.</p><p> </p><p>That year, after the first snow fell, the lake froze. The lake froze in a nastiest way that Rey knew Ben could never make it to the shore.</p><p> </p><p>She waited, again. She was good at this. She could wait till spring. These ice would break one day. Ben would be able to be here again.</p><p> </p><p>Ben did not show up the next spring either.</p><p> </p><p>Rey decided she have had enough waiting. During all these time she had saved up enough for another bargain.</p><p> </p><p>She left before the summer came.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Rey landed herself on a dock and became an apprentice sailor.</p><p> </p><p>Within five years, Rey became the most famous navigator. She was a living legend. Bards made songs for her; theatrical troupes played her life story all over the country, the story of how an insignificant island girl had escaped the reign of a tyrant and turned herself into a great seafarer who had sailed across the Seven Seas more than a dozen times, leading her crew to find uncharted lands, bringing back priceless treasures and rare animals.</p><p> </p><p><em>Eurydice the Seawalker</em>. That's how people called her these days. Rumors said Eurydice made a deal with the sirens, exchanging her own heart for all the safety passages at sea. Rey laughed when her staff captain, Poe Dameron told her the story.</p><p> </p><p>"Do you really believe in such follies?" Rey asked.</p><p> </p><p>"Well, a lot of boys on the ship seem pretty convinced." Poe grinned.</p><p> </p><p>"You know I owed all my safe trips to your men and Chewie, right?" Chewbacca was her first mate, a hairy half-giant with unparalleled skillset in sailing.</p><p> </p><p>Poe raised an eyebrow.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>She never mentioned Ben after she left the island. Ben was her secret sorrow and joy. She never told anyone that she kept going back to that woods. In her dreams, when her mind drifted, the moment she closed her eyes. She could feel the cold wind trying to seep through her bones; she could smell the decay of rotten pine needles; she could see the lake shone molten gold beneath the sunset, like there was a fire on the lake, flames floating on the water. So bright it hurt to look at it.</p><p> </p><p>Most of all, Ben was there, too.</p><p> </p><p>There once a siren in her life. In a way, she did give him her heart. But for what? She was not sure. She went back to that island once, after she got famous and Lord Snoke was replaced by a new Lord who had an open mind and a gentle heart.</p><p> </p><p>As a matter of fact, it was her fame that brought people’s attention to the island. The King sent officials to investigate Snoke’s illicit business and put an end to it. Snoke was beheaded, people received Rey as a hero.</p><p> </p><p>She met the Ticos. Rey missed them so much. She even talked Rose into leaving the island and travel with her for some time. The Tico couple refused to part with their humble iron shop, so Rey agreed to visit more often.</p><p> </p><p>Rey did go back to the woods during her brief stay on the island.</p><p> </p><p>He was not there. Perhaps he already died, her heart buried with him in the water. Perhaps that was why she was now doomed to these waters, becoming a restless wanderer on the sea, looking for her lost heart.</p><p> </p><p>She guessed part of the reason she became a navigator was to hope one day they would meet again.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>That day shall come soon.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Water has always been an allay so long as the siren stay away from the land. Water helped bury the evidence, provide shelter and food. But, once the siren got too close to the shore, this treacherous friend would turn its back in no time. It set traps, colluded with enemies.</p><p> </p><p>It betrayed.</p><p> </p><p>Lord Snoke, who came to the island with a purpose in mind: capturing a siren of the legend.</p><p> </p><p>He did the research. He had spent years collecting every single tale and whisper about these mysterious creatures, and somehow connected the dots.</p><p> </p><p>Snoke believed sirens had appeared in this lake before. There was a pattern. This was the northernmost place where the water did not freeze in winter. It was only a matter of time for another one to show up.</p><p> </p><p>Snoke was about to lose his patience when Ben revealed himself. To be fair, Ben had spent too much time near the land. He could have stay unnoticed. But with his frequent passages to the shore, the regular life of the fishes in the lake had been turned upside and down.</p><p> </p><p>It was the fishermen on the lake who noticed the madness of the fishes first. They reported to Snoke and he was wild with ecstasy. He paid a fortune of hush money to them so no one else would know about this. Then he began to scheme.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, Snoke had what he desired on a foggy night.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Ben was captured, silenced and locked up under strict guard. Snoke built a giant cage in the lake, right below his castle. Snoke would have someone drag Ben up and drew his blood every day, all the while dreaming the “magical” power of siren’s blood.</p><p> </p><p>Ben thought he would never have the chance to escape, he might as well kill himself and end this once and for all. He could not. Rey must be waiting for him. He could not just die like this.</p><p> </p><p>He lost count of how many days had past. One day, the guards disappeared and the red headed men who came to draw his blood every day stopped coming by. He was forgotten under the lake.</p><p> </p><p>Back then he was barely alive. Sirens may have outstanding healing ability, but he never had enough food and this daily blood drawing thing had weakened him too much. He waited for some days to recover his strength. When he was strong enough to escape, he went straight to the shore near the woods.</p><p> </p><p>He was too late. Rey left with Rose the day before.</p><p> </p><p>He noticed there were more boats and people on the lake now. He overheard a story about how a young girl left this island years ago and became a legendary sailor.</p><p> </p><p><em>Huh, years ago.</em> So Rey did not even bother to say goodbye to him. He thought there was something special between the two of them. He was wrong. He was nothing, a burden to discard when not wanted.</p><p> </p><p>He left the lake with so much pain in body and soul. He went back to the Great Sea, to where he was born, sulking and grooming.</p><p> </p><p>Then singing became the only thing that mattered in his life. As he sang day after day, he forgot Snoke, forgot his torturous imprisonment. Later he forgot the girl. He forgot her name, her voice, her face, how her smiles had once brightened his world, like sunrise lighting up the sea, like a fire burning on the water.</p><p> </p><p>He forgot he was Ben.</p><p> </p><p>The only thing he remembered was his rage. Sometimes he remembered he was sad. Yet at this point he could no longer tell the difference between hatred and sorrow. He was just, angry with everything.</p><p> </p><p>He wanted revenge.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>When the news of murdering siren arrived, Rey’s heart stopped beating for a second.</p><p> </p><p>There was a siren in the Southern Sea, singing every night, killing sailors. The king called an immediate cessation of all the night lanes but dozens had died already.</p><p> </p><p>Hundreds of plead went flying to the court, stating the siren must be killed, therefore the Seas would be safe again. A whole fleet was sent out, only a few survivors returned. The survivors claimed the alleged siren was a male. There were scars on his face and shoulder.</p><p> </p><p>It was Ben.</p><p> </p><p>The King promised fortune and the title of nobility for whoever could kill the siren.</p><p> </p><p>No one dared to go.</p><p> </p><p>Rey volunteered.</p><p> </p><p>She did not care about the money or the title. She needed to see him. She owed him a proper goodbye, and an apology.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Rey set off alone on a clear night with a full moon. Poe and Chewie had both offered their help. She declined.</p><p> </p><p>Ben should recognize her. Ben would never hurt her.</p><p> </p><p>She sailed the ship halfway, furled the sail and lowered the anchor. She resumed her quest on a small lifeboat.</p><p> </p><p>Then she heard the song. One moment she thought this was the most beautiful song she had ever heard in her entire life. The next moment she had lost her conscious.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>He noticed the boat long before she even came close.</p><p> </p><p>This was weird. Last time there were countless people, lots of ships. Now there was only one boat, one young woman.</p><p> </p><p>It did not matter.</p><p> </p><p>He began to sing.</p><p> </p><p>The boat came closer. He had a better view of the young woman. Her eyes were glazed under the influence of his song. Her face was peaceful under the moonlight. Her hair was tied up in three neat buns behind her head.</p><p> </p><p>He did not care.</p><p> </p><p>One gentle pull, another human being would say goodbye to this world.</p><p> </p><p>“Ben.” The woman called.</p><p> </p><p>He got confused.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Who was Ben?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>“Ben.” The woman called again. This time, she reached out her hand.</p><p> </p><p>She was reaching out for him. She was reaching out for Ben.</p><p> </p><p>He made no response. <em>Ben</em> was not his name.</p><p> </p><p>She sighed.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you mad at me?” The woman continued with a faint smile. “I should have said goodbye. I waited for almost a year. You never returned, so I left. I’m sorry, Ben.”</p><p> </p><p>Her hand was still reaching out. Somehow he took it. Her hand was small but rough, with callus and scars.</p><p> </p><p>Her smile widened. It no longer looked sad.</p><p> </p><p>“You had my ring.” The woman was referring to a small silver ring one his little finger. He did not know where did he get the ring. He just assumed it was always there.</p><p>She gently removed it and tried to put it on her thumb.</p><p> </p><p>It did not fit.</p><p> </p><p>He was relieved. He was worried if it fit, there would be a lot more questions.</p><p> </p><p>The woman stared at her hand for a while and shook her head.<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“I guess you can keep it.” She put the ring back on his little finger, which fit perfectly.</p><p> </p><p>“Ben.” His heart twitched every time when she called that name.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m sorry.” It was the second time she apologized.</p><p> </p><p>“But this has to stop, Ben.”</p><p> </p><p>What had to stop?</p><p> </p><p>“No one needs to die.”</p><p> </p><p>So his revenge, then.</p><p> </p><p>Why did he want a revenge in the first place? He only knew he was angry. Angry with who? Angry about what? He did not remember.</p><p> </p><p>The woman was right. No one needed to die.</p><p> </p><p>He gave her one last look, to appreciate her hazel eyes and rosy lips, before vanishing among the seas.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Rey woke up to the morning sun, alone in her boat. Her head was all woozy. She did not remember what happened. She only recalled she sailed off on a lifeboat, then all the rest was all just blur. She assumed they must have met. She was still alive and well, it must be a good sign.</p><p> </p><p>She rowed herself to the ship and sailed back to the dock. She was hungry. She could have some breakfast before she began to recollect her memory from last night.</p><p> </p><p>She stepped off the ship, heading for the streets. An old sailor was organizing fishing net on his boat, preparing for sail.</p><p> </p><p>The sailor was singing an old song while working:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>There is a river called the river of no return</em><br/>
<em>Sometimes it’s peaceful and sometimes wild and free</em><br/>
<em>Love is a traveler on the river of no return</em><br/>
<em>Swept on forever to be lost in the stormy sea</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p> </p><p>Rey stopped and stood there.</p><p> </p><p>The sailor was still singing:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>I can hear my lover call come to me</em><br/>
<em>I lost my love on the river and forever my heart will yearn</em><br/>
<em>Gone gone forever down the river of no return</em><br/>
<em>Wail-a-ree</em><br/>
<em>Wail-a-ree</em><br/>
<em>She’ll never return to me</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p> </p><p>A little girl bumped into her legs. She suddenly realized there were tears all over her face. She did not even know she was crying.</p><p> </p><p>Rey wiped her eyes and bent down to face the child.</p><p> </p><p>“Be careful, kid.”</p><p> </p><p>“Wow, your necklace is pretty!”</p><p> </p><p>“What necklace? Oh.” Her necklace must have slid out when she bowed her head.</p><p> </p><p>The pendant was a pearl embedded in silver base. Ben gave her that pearl a few years back. She had kept it carefully and turned it into a necklace later when she had extra money.</p><p> </p><p>She had wear it ever since then, never taking it off.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you. Now off you go.”</p><p> </p><p>The girl giggled merrily and ran away.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>The murdering siren never appeared again.</p><p> </p><p>People heralded Rey as the warrior who slayed the siren.</p><p> </p><p>The king kept his promise. Rey was awarded with the title of Marquess. She had no lands, instead she was granted all the Seven Seas.</p><p> </p><p>Everyone was dying to know what happened on that fateful night. Even the king himself had asked about that. Rey’s answer was the same, no comment.</p><p> </p><p>Soon enough more and more people start to buy in the rumor about her trading her heart with the siren.</p><p> </p><p>Rey laughed it off.</p><p> </p><p>She had a new life now.</p><p> </p><p>It was time to let go and set herself free, setting him free.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>---The End---</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>Afterword:</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Sometimes I had this illusion, that I was just in need of you, not in love with you. I was wrong. Otherwise such an illusion would be a lie too cruel. Of course I was loving you, with all my heart. Yet the strongest, purest of my love for you only appeared when I realized that I might lose you forever, just like right now.</em>
</p><p>Translated from excerpt of <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22145272">Words Above Water</a>, originally written in Chinese by kiriame/Frejya.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I kept my promise. I finished this story. Kudos to me! BTW, the lyrics mentioned in this chapter came from The River of No Return.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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